Eagles Topple Missouri State in Opener

The Eastern Washington University volleyball team opened its
2009 campaign with an impressive 25-22, 25-20, 17-25, 25-21 victory
over Missouri State at the Oregon Classic in Eugene, Ore. In doing
so, the Eagles knocked off a team that received votes in the AVCA
Coaches Top 25 Preseason Poll and played in last year's NCAA
Tournament.

After controlling the first two sets of the match and taking a
2-0 sets lead, the Eagles had to fight back in the third and fourth
stanzas.

"I think we had a different focus after being up 2-0 instead of
keeping our nose to the grindstone," head coach Miles
Kydd said. "But we did a good job finishing and beat a
top-50 team, which is significant since that is where we see
ourselves."

The team went up 8-2 in the first set and held off a Missouri
State push towards the end of the set to claim the 25-22 win. The
second set started off close before Eastern pushed away from a
narrow 17-16 edge to prevail 25-20.

Missouri State came out on fire out of the locker room after the
break, jumping out to 6-0 and 9-1 advantages before the Eagles
stormed back with a 13-5 run to tie the set, 14-14. However, the
Bears put space between the teams by securing seven straight
tallies to turn a 16-16 stalemate into a 23-16 Missouri State
advantage.

The fourth set was more of the same, as the Bears went up 5-0
and 10-3 before EWU chipped away at the deficit before tying the
score, 13-13. The teams stayed tight until the Eagles broke away
from a 21-21 tie with the final four points of the set.

Hayley Hills played spectacularly the first two
sets, hitting at a .684 clip when the teams broke for their locker
rooms with 14 kills on 19 attempts with just one attack error.

"Missouri State made some adjustments and camped on her
(starting in the third set)," Kydd said.

She did come to earth after that point, however, and finished
with 20 kills and hit .174 (20-12-46) for the match. The returning
Big Sky Conference Player of the Year hit the 20-kill milestone
seven times a season ago.

Also attaining double-digit kill totals today were
Chenoa Coviare (12) and Cora
Kellerman (10). Coviare's hitting percentage was
especially impressive, .455 (12-2-22). Ashley
Hamilton had 34 assists in the contest, while
JaNae Mortensen led the team with 19 digs and four
service aces. Hills contributed 13 digs to Eastern's efforts.

The Eagles now look ahead to No. 14 Oregon, who opened its
season tonight with a 25-18, 25-8, 26-24 win over San Francisco. A
year ago, the Ducks rode a pair of NCAA Tournament wins to a
second-successive Sweet 16 appearance.

The Eagles face Oregon at 10 a.m. on Saturday (Aug. 29) before
facing San Francisco at 4:30 p.m. Like Missouri State, the Dons are
also receiving top-25 votes and played in the NCAA Tournament last
year.